In Your Eyes
by Fragile Hanabi
Summary: No one had ever looked at her with such an intensity since Itachi. Shino x Hana, with slight Itachi x Hana. Please review.


**_In Your Eyes_**

Quiet. Talented. Fiercely attractive.

These were the words used to describe Hana Inuzuka, even at a young age when she was no more than a tomboy who constantly got into fights with fellow genin and spent most of her time sitting alone and distanced from her peers with her dogs as her only companions.

It was this that first attracted Itachi Uchiha to the Inuzuka.

Hana had never been one who attempted to make friends, and neither had Itachi. They knew each other as acquaintances - he was the Uchiha prodigy, graduated from the academy at age seven and already a jonin, and she was the girl that had sat next to him the three weeks he had spent at said academy. She was a year older than him. They both had baby brothers born months apart from one another. Their parents knew each other well.

Hana looked at Itachi with mild respect.

He never seemed to notice her at all.

It was the day she was alone in the forest that Itachi first showed that he had taken notice of her.

Attempting to practice a failing jutsu, the Uchiha genius offered the struggling Hana a few tips on how to perfect her maneuver. She had ignored him, not even giving him any notion that she knew he was there. He stood behind her anyway until she left.

He came back a few days later to discover her practicing the jutsu the way he had suggested she do it.

After that, the two often met at the very spot to work out jutsu and practice basic training skills when they felt they needed it. Their conversations never went beyond words of advice or a slight comment about a clan or family member. Her respect for the Uchiha remained mild and he in turn tolerated the Inuzuka.

They kept this up for several years. No one knew about it, except their parents. Itachi's mother and father never commented about it. Tsume Inuzuka was wary of the Uchiha boy, her senses telling her that there was more to the twelve year old than what met the eye.

She constantly asked Hana questions about what they did together. If he ever treated her wrong. If he ever made any sexual advances on her. If he ever did anything that would give her a reason to sic every dog and member of the Inuzuka clan on the Uchiha boy in Hana's defense.

Hana answered no to every question. She felt that there was nothing to fear about Itachi, and the thirteen year old let Tsume know that as she left on a particularly rainy day to meet with the Uchiha.

"Well, as long as you don't have a crush on him!" Tsume shouted after her daughter.

Hana felt her heart lurch and a slight blush creep up on her tattooed cheeks.

It was gone by the time she met up with Itachi. The Uchiha was especially quiet that day, the gaze of his Sharingan eyes never making eye contact with Hana's dark pupils.

It didn't bother the Inuzuka at all and she brushed it off, sparring against Itachi with a strength that day that she wasn't even aware she held. Once they had finished, the sun setting slowly in the sky and casting shadows on the trees that surrounded them, Hana packed up her things like she normally did and prepared to depart. She and Itachi never greeted nor said good - bye to each other. It was something they had both mentally decided was unnecessary.

As she turned to leave, Hana found herself face - to - face with the Uchiha prodigy. Her cheeks turned a bright crimson and her heart beat quickened as Itachi gazed at her with his Sharingan. He didn't say anything. He just looked at her, studying her with a fixed intensity. Hana felt a strange feeling in her heart, an aching she got by just looking at the Uchiha.

Minutes passed in silence, an odd sense of nervousness settling over the forest.

It was broken the moment that Itachi pressed his lips to Hana's, catching the Inuzuka by surprise. The kiss lasted no more than thirty seconds before Itachi pulled away and strode quickly in the opposite direction, pausing only once to look over his shoulder at the dazed Inuzuka.

"Good - bye," he said to her, shattering their code against greetings and farewells.

Three days later, Hana heard the news that Itachi had permanently removed the majority of the Uchiha clan from existence savor himself and his younger brother Sasuke.

Tsume panicked when she had heard the news, in complete disbelief that she had allowed her daughter to spend so much time alone with a psycho like Itachi.

Hana had remained silent, refusing to comment verbally on anything involving the Uchiha. Emotionally, she was torn. Her heart broke for the first time in her life, and she found herself crying tears over the boy that she had only just realized she held feelings for.

Hana hated feeling hurt, and she swore that she would never allow a boy to give her feelings like that again.

* * *

The days following Itachi's massacre of the Uchiha clan seemed to drag by, and Hana once again found herself alone and without friends savor the Haimaru Triplets. Reverting back to her quiet and tomboyish self, the Inuzuka spent the rest of her academy days in separation and managed to graduate at age ten as a chunin. She worked side - by - side with her mother for several years until she grew old enough to know what career path she desired in life - veterinarian. Hana had found that she had a natural talent for healing animals - specifically the dogs around the Inuzuka compound - and she decided that a path like this would be best. 

Being a veterinarian would allow Hana to not to have to work with people - especially men. Hana had grown quite well since her days as a training partner to Itachi Uchiha, her physical assets developing more than she would have liked. This gained her consistent and unwanted attention from men from all over the village - Hana spent most of her teenage years fighting off advances from fellow rookies to colleagues to random strangers.

She was also insanely gorgeous for a female member of the Inuzuka clan, the normally fierce features that accompanied fellow clan members having been softened by her natural beauty.

So Hana continued to fight away men, occasionally dating a boy that turned out to be just as shallow as the rest. Kiba, who had also grown up well over the years and was turning into a handsome boy who respected women out of love for both his mother and sister, helped to fend off Hana's suitors and occasionally put in his opinions on whom he thought would be good for her.

Hana very rarely agreed with Kiba's input. She was waiting around for a special boy who would be able to replace the feelings that she still felt for a certain Uchiha that she no longer spoke of. She highly doubted she ever would find him.

This all changed when Kiba became a member of Team Eight.

Hana had been hearing about Shino Aburame ever since he had been placed on the same team as Kiba. She wasn't aware who he exactly was at the time - Kiba only referred to his sensei and female teammate by their names, calling his only male companion "bug freak". Hana easily sensed Kiba's dislike of Shino by the way he spoke of him - Hana knew that Kiba wanted to be team leader and it seemed that Shino posed as a likely opponent that could keep Kiba from gaining his title.

Hana first saw "bug freak" a few months after Team Eight's creation when Kiba had both him and Hinata to their home to discuss the turnout of their first mission together. Hana had entered the Inuzuka home that day to find Kiba chatting happily with the young Hyuuga, completely taken by the shy girl who was oblivious to Kiba's obvious stares and come - ons.

Hana had smiled at Hinata and introduced herself to her brother's friend, taking a moment to ruffle Kiba's hair and embarrass her younger brother in front of the object of his affection. Hinata had giggled and Kiba went almost as red as the tattoos on his face.

The color of his blush brought a sudden wave of sadness to Hana's heart. She had blushed like that once in front of someone she had found herself desiring.

Pushing the troublesome thoughts of Itachi from her head, Hana drifted into the family den to check on the Haimaru Triplets. Stooping down to scratch each dog lovingly behind the ears, Hana felt a chill run up her spin as she sensed a foreign pair of eyes watching her. Tensing, the Inuzuka looked up slowly to see a figure standing not too far from her.

He had dark brown hair that stuck up all over his head, pale skin, and sunglasses that covered his eyes. His face was emotionless, partially covered by the tall collar of his white jacket. He was tall, standing with his hands in his pockets. There was a coolness that seemed to emit from his persona.

Hana stared back at the boy, her heart pounding heavily in her chest. Although she could not see his eyes, her senses allowed her to feel them on her. The boy's gaze was intense - an intensity that was strong.

No one had ever looked at her with such an intensity since Itachi.

Attempting to shake off the feelings that surged within her at the thought of Itachi and the reminiscence of his gaze, Hana stood, never breaking the eye contact that she believed she was holding with this boy.

They both remained silent until Kiba barged into the room, yelling "Bug freak! What the hell are you doing in here?" upon entry. He stopped when he noticed the staring war between his sister and teammate.

"Shino? Hana? What's going on?" he asked in confusion.

Hana looked at her younger brother and grinned at him. "Is this your teammate?" she asked. Kiba nodded in reply.

"Yeah, that's bug freak!"

"Nice to meet you Shino!" Hana said, turning her attention back to the silent boy. "I'm Hana, Kiba's older sister." Shino didn't respond, looking from Hana to Kiba slowly.

"He doesn't say much," Kiba added. Shino turned his gaze on Kiba and, in Hana's opinion, glared at the dog boy. Kiba glared back, and Hana sensed that this wasn't going to be good.

"Well, I'll leave you guys alone now," Hana said. "Just don't make a mess and try not to kill each other. I'm upstairs if you need anything." She bolted out of the room and hurried up the stairs. So this was "bug freak" - or Shino, apparently. Hana wasn't sure what to make of him - emotionless and quiet seemed like a good place to start, but she still didn't understand what the whole "bug" thing was about.

And then there was the fixed intensity that he had been gazing at her with - how it had reminded her of Itachi and the way that he had looked at her the last time they saw each other. They were alike in a way, Hana realized suddenly. Both intense, quiet, and extremely emotionless.

But Itachi had been gorgeous. Shino was cute - in a mysterious way, but cute nonetheless.

Hana stopped herself with her hand on her doorknob. Had she just thought of her brother's teammate as cute? She shook her head and laughed slightly. She was going crazy, she knew it.

* * *

Over the next few months, Hana learned more about Shino than she had ever planned on learning. She found out, while watching him practice with her brother and Hinata the days that they found themselves training in the Inuzuka family's backyard, that Shino was a member of the Aburame clan. While most people would be disgusted by the bugs that lived within the boy, Hana was surprised to find out that it didn't disgust her at all. She actually found it interesting that there was another clan in Konoha that had entered into a union with an animal partner. 

Even though bugs weren't animals, and dogs didn't live inside Inuzuka clan members.

Hana came to respect Shino greatly, and she even went out of her way to talk to the Aburame boy to get to know him better. Shino had been resistant at first to Hana's open kindness, but eventually he warmed up to her and acknowledged her presence when he was at her home. Hana found Shino to be very smart and a good source of information that could be used with her veterinarian work. As a bug user, he often offered tips to Hana about how to cure some of the animals at the hospital that were suffering from bug related injuries. Always grateful for his help, Hana came to regard Shino as a friend.

Maybe it was out of pity, or maybe there was something else there, but Hana found herself enjoying his company much more than she supposed she should.

Afraid of the growing interest in her little brother's teammate, Hana forced herself to work more hours at the animal hospital. She still saw Shino and Hinata, who had become like a younger sister to her, before and after most of their missions - which wasn't often.

It was easy for Hana to avoid her brother's team at first, until the day that Kuranei visited her at the hospital and asked Hana if she could be the sensei of Team Eight while she went on pregnancy leave. Not wanting to suffer the consequences if she refused the offer, Hana agreed to preside over her brother's team for six months.

Kiba had been thrilled when he heard the that his sister would be his temporary sensei, thinking of all the things he would be able to get away with and all the free time he would convince her to let him spend with Hinata.

Hinata had smiled. She quite liked Hana.

Shino's opinion, if he had expressed one at all, wasn't known.

When Hana first met with Team Eight, she told them that she wanted their training sessions to continue on the way that Kuranei had previously run them. Kiba had jumped up, grabbing a blushing Hinata by the hand and telling his sister that they were training together to practice a new jutsu that Hinata was working on.

Which left Hana, as she watched her brother drag the Hyuuga away, with Shino.

After a moment of avoiding the gaze that Hana felt on her, Shino said, "Kuranei - sensei was helping me practice a new technique involving my bugs." He than walked away slowly with his hands in his pockets, and it took Hana a moment to register that she would have to train Shino before she followed slowly behind the fifteen year - old boy.

Hana discovered, over the next few days, that training with Shino was eerily reminiscent of the training sessions she had experienced years ago with Itachi.

She shuddered slightly as she dodged another wave of Shino's bugs. The Aburame was intent on catching her with this bug jutsu, but Hana was far too quick for him to accomplish it correctly. He should have had an easier time catching her - she was far too preoccupied with thoughts about Itachi to pay much attention to what Shino was doing.

It was only when Shino stopped attempting to attack her and bluntly asked for an explanation as to why she was ignoring him that Hana realized she hadn't been paying much attention.

She was surprised when she found herself literally pouring out her heart to Shino about everything that had happened involving the Uchiha prodigy - things that she had never spoken of before, not even to her mother. Shino had listened - or so it seemed - with his hands in his pockets and his eyebrows raised.

From then on, the rest of Hana's time as sensei to Team Eight involved training Shino, keeping Kiba from molesting Hinata (the poor Hyuuga was still blissfully oblivious to Kiba's constant displays of affection), and having therapeutic sessions in which she spoke about Itachi to Shino.

* * *

Hana sat outside the Konoha animal hospital, finishing up her lunch before she had to return to her veterinarian work. It had been an uneventful day, with a few minor operations involving two dogs and a cat being the most strenuous thing occurring. 

Until one of the interns came running out, grabbed Hana, and rushed her to the Konoha hospital. The intern explained on their way over that one of the new jonin had just returned from a mission with a severely injured teammate that was in dire need of healing. Confused, Hand had inquired as to why they needed her, a veterinarian, to heal a human patient. The intern responded that the patient was one of the members of the Aburame clan.

Hana's heart skipped a beat. It was Shino.

Once inside, Hana almost ran into a slightly injured Kiba and a tearful Hinata. Following his sister to the emergency room, Kiba explained that while they were on their mission they had been ambushed by fellow jonin from a rival town. He explained that while Shino was fighting, one of the jonin had attacked him with some strange looking jutsu that had left Shino in a fetal position and twitching.

Hana felt her pulse quicken as she listened to Kiba's story, both anxious over Shino's condition and the fact that she was expected to heal him. Telling her brother to have his injuries checked, she carefully entered the emergency room where an official informed her of Shino's condition. According to the official, the jutsu that had been performed on Shino had affected the bugs that lived inside him, disrupting the normal union between themselves and the Aburame clan member. Apparently, they were eating away at Shino's chakra at a much quicker rate and, if they were not stopped, would devour his chakra so quickly that it would cause internal damage to Shino and, in the worst case scenario, lead to death.

Hana stopped breathing for a moment when the official mentioned death. Shino couldn't die. Not now.

"If you're ready," he added on, gesturing to a table with several other figures crowded around it. Hana approached the table slowly, and the sight of the eighteen year old jonin on the table broke her heart.

Shino was primarily unconscious, his glasses gone and his face contorted in pain. His hands were balled into tight fists and he was shaking. A few of the fellow doctors standing around her were trying their best to heal him so that he would stop moving, but they were not having much success.

Hana pushed her way passed them and placed one hand on Shino's forehead and the other on his chest. She concentrated hard, thinking back to a time when she had first learned about different types of animal injuries and how they could be cured. While Shino was not an animal, the bugs inside him were as close to an animal as Hana was going to get and she figured to heal Shino she would have to heal the bugs first.

Concentrating all of her energy to her hands, Hana released her chakra into Shino's body.

She could only hope that this would work.

* * *

She heard him groan slightly, covering his closed eyes with his hands as he shifted underneath the blankets. Hana leaned against the wall of the hospital room, watching him closely. 

"Hey handsome," Hana called out jokingly.

Shino shot up and looked at Hana, his eyes wide once he realized that she was in the room. Hana felt her breath catch in her throat when his eyes interlocked with hers. For the six years that she had known him, Hana had never seen Shino without his glasses on. Now, finally awake three days after she had healed him, Shino was staring at her with his eyes revealed.

They were blue - a blue so bright that Hana had doubted their actual color even existed.

And they were so full of emotion, emotion that Hana had never known Shino was even capable of feeling.

She saw something in his eyes, something that she had suspected but was now completely confirmed about.

Trying to hide the shock on her face, Hana grinned at the Aburame. "Feeling better?" she asked, genuinely concerned about his health.

Shino nodded slightly, looking away from the Inuzuka. "How long will I be here?" he asked after a moment, his eyes fixated on the blanket beneath him.

"For the rest of the week," Hana responded. "You came in here severely injured from your mission - your bugs were pretty messed up. They called me in to heal them because they were affecting you. It seems I did I pretty good job, considering you're not dead."

Shino nodded again, refusing to look up. Hana felt an odd emotion in her heart as she looked at him - the same emotion that had been troubling her since she had first met the Aburame boy. Attempting to push it aside, Hana walked over to Shino and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. Shino continued to look down. "Take care of yourself," she said to him when he refused to look at her. "And try to be more careful on the next mission. You had me pretty worried when they told me you might die." With that said, she kissed him gently on the top of his head and left before he could - if he even would - react.

* * *

"So then I jumped into the middle of their fight and stopped the kid before he could pummel his opponent to death," Kiba bragged to Hinata. The Hyuuga girl listened to Kiba intently, gazing up at him with her pale eyes full of wonder. 

Hana sighed and shook her head. For the last two days she had been listening to Kiba's ever - changing rendition of how he saved the life of some genin during the Chunin Exams. She had no idea why the Hokage had even allowed Kiba to preside over the match - she wouldn't have allowed him to do it, even if they threatened her with death. Kiba, although he was eighteen and a jonin, still had some maturity issues to work out.

"Where's Shino?" Hana asked. Kiba looked at her, slightly annoyed, and responded, "Probably outside collecting bugs or something. You should know where he is since you seem to like him so much."

Hana reddened at Kiba's comment and punched her brother in the shoulder. Trying to ignore her erratic heartbeat, she excused herself from Kiba's ego inflation and disappeared outside. Walking over to the more wooded section of their backyard, Hana tried hard to calm herself down as best as she could.

She had almost accomplished that goal until the sight of Shino sent her heart into a tizzy again.

"Hey Shino."

The Aburame turned around at the mention of his name, and the look of natural annoyance that normally occupied his face when someone bothered him subsided into a more kind expression once he spotted Hana.

"Hello Hana," he replied turning as he turned away from her. "I'm feeling fine. My bugs haven't disturbed me at all."

Hana laughed lightly at Shino's assumption that the only reason that she had come looking for him was because she was interested in his health. He had been out of the hospital for almost a week, and Hana knew for a fact that he was alright. She had visited him twice while he was recovering.

Shino turned around again once he realized that Hana had other intentions than checking up on his health. "What else is going on?" he asked her. "Is there something you want to tell me involving Itachi Uchiha?"

Hana's eyes widened at the mention of Itachi's name. She hadn't spoken about the Uchiha to Shino in almost three years, not since she was Team Eight's temporary sensei.

"No," she replied, still in shock.

"Really?" Shino responded, his eyebrows raised. "I suppose you know about what happened."

"Yeah, I know," Hana answered quickly. She looked down. She had heard about what had happened to Itachi, how they had found him dead. She had tried not to think about it, afraid of the emotions that it would cause her to feel again.

At that moment, while thinking about Itachi, a revelation came to Hana. She gasped suddenly, understanding exactly what was going on.

"Shino," she began after a moment, "do you honestly think the only reason that I came out here tonight was to talk to you about Itachi?"

The Aburame didn't respond, his hands in his pockets and his intense gaze fixed on her. Hana gazed back at him, staring at his glasses that hid his gorgeous blue and emotion - filled eyes from the world. She took a step towards him, frowning slightly.

"You do, don't you?" she surmised correctly, judging mainly from his silence. "Shino, why would you think that? You know I care about you so much more than to bother you with something as trivial as that."

"No you don't," he replied flatly. "You don't care."

His words cut Hana like a knife. "Yes I do," she insisted. Pausing slightly to make sure that her feelings where in check, she added on, "More than you know."

Her words hung in the air around them before Shino digested exactly what she had meant. His eyebrows were raised higher than Hana had ever seen them before, and he opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. Closing his eyes, he shook his head and then said, "No, you can't."

"Why not?" Hana asked, feeling as though something were clenching her heart. "I can't understand what you're trying to tell me."

Shino paused again. "I shall explain," he stated simply. "I am a bug. I do not care. I cannot care. I have no emotions. You are a human. A woman. You cannot care about me because we are not of the same species. It is wrong for you to even think of me this way."

Hana would have laughed at his stupidity if she hadn't been so shocked by the words that came from his mouth. "You don't mean that," she said, stepping closer to him until they were literally inches apart. Reaching forward, she placed her hand gently against his cheek. Shino didn't move, but through his lenses Hana saw his eyes widen at the touch of her skin against his.

"You are not a bug," Hana told him. "You are a human. A man. You have the ability to care like every other human in existence. You can care. And I know you do. I see how you treat my brother and Hinata - you clearly care about them, I can tell. I've seen you with your father before, and you care about him." She paused for a moment, bracing herself for what she was planning on doing next. "And more importantly, I know how you feel about me. I could tell, even when you were younger and continued to act aloof to me, that you were jealous anytime that I mentioned Itachi. I knew you enjoyed spending time with me, even though you never expressed it. I saw the way you looked at me that day in the hospital Shino, when you didn't have your glasses on. I saw every emotion in your eyes, every feeling you've felt for me clearly expressed. And this may come as a surprise to you, or it may not, but I reciprocate those feelings. At first I spent a lot of years denying them, but I can't deny them. Not anymore. Not when I'm being falsely accused of not caring. I've been waiting around to meet someone who could cause me to feel the feelings that I used to feel with Itachi again, and that someone is you. And I'm not about to let you get away with your stupid logic about how I can't feel for you because you're a bug."

There was more Hana had wanted to say, more that she felt she need to express to the Aburame boy - but she was interrupted when Shino shyly leaned forward and closed the distance between them with a kiss. Hana had been caught off guard, not knowing that Shino was even capable of doing something like that. She quickly shook it off and threw her arms around him, clutching him to her and kissing him madly. Shino was inexperienced, but he held his own with the Inuzuka beauty.

They pulled away the moment Kiba yelled "Hana!" loudly. Looking over her shoulder, Hana smirked slightly. "I suppose I should be getting back to them," she said. "Kiba doesn't know why I came to find you." Mentally, she cursed out her brother for interrupting them. She didn't know why he would need her. He should be sitting on the couch, switching from inflating his ego to making out with Hinata - who, after almost six years, had realized that Kiba had been crushing on her since they were genin.

Hana was thankful when she found out that Hinata had interest in Kiba. She really had grown tired of watching her brother fail helplessly as he did anything and everything he could think of to gain the shy Hyuuga's attention.

Shino nodded in response to Hana's previous statement. Hana smiled at him happily again, kissing him one last time before she had to head back to her house. Pulling away, Hana bit Shino's lower lip affectionately.

Shino stared at her, and Hana swore she saw the traces of a blush creep over his cheeks. "It's an Inuzuka trait," she explained to him. Shino only nodded, his cheeks still looking suspiciously pink.

She turned to leave before Shino grabbed her wrist. "Wait," he said, his voice determined. Hana stopped, eyeing him confusedly.

"I need to ask one favor of you," Shino began. Hana nodded, curious as to what he was referring to.

"Please, let him go," Shino said, and Hana knew exactly whom he meant. "If you want to have me, you have to let him go."

Hana closed her eyes for a moment as memories swirled through her head. She saw a twelve year old boy, handsome and smart and intense and fierce. She felt his lips against hers, and the pain in her heart once he was gone.

The grief the announcement of his death had caused her.

She thought of an eighteen year old boy, quiet and intense and amazing in so many ways. She remembered the way he had kissed her only moments ago, the feelings that she had attempted to fight off for so many years.

She remembered the look in his eyes.

Itachi had never looked at her the way Shino had. His feelings were real.

"Consider it done," she responded before leaving.

* * *

Quiet. Talented. Fiercely attractive. 

These were the words that Shino Aburame used to describe Hana Inuzuka, his girlfriend of almost three months. Their relationship was simple and happy, and not overpowered by the old feelings felt for someone no longer in existence.

Shino was a much better choice than Itachi - and Hana wouldn't have it any other way.

**Fin.**

* * *

**Wow, that was kind of long. I haven't written a lenghty one - shot in a long time. Anyway, I hope it was enjoyable. I like Hana, even though she isn't a very developed character. I've always thought that she went well with Shino - and this story was supposed to be only ShinoHana, but I ran across a few very well written Itachi and Hana stories and I decided to add it in for plot purposes.**

**Thank you for reading and please review!**


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